Happy Birthday Mary-Our Edible Rosaries

In the Catholic Church, our Blessed Mother's birthday is traditionally celebrated on September 8 each year on the Church's calendar.  One of the many reasons I love being Catholic is that our Church celebrates Mary throughout the entire year with lots of  Marian feast days.  Mary did have such an important role in salvation history by having the privilege to cradle Jesus in her womb for 9 months and raise our Savior, it's always nice to give her honor on more days than just at Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus' birth.

There are so many wonderful Marian Feast Days in the church throughout the year and celebrating Mary's birthday is one of our family's favorite.  My children love birthdays and celebrating our Blessed Mother's special day is definitely a birthday party our family doesn't want to miss!   Each year our homeschool group gathers for Mass on September 8 and then we have a birthday party for Mary.

Each year we create an edible rosary, which is always a hit with the children.

We say a decade of the rosary with the children and parents then sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!".

Here are some photos of the rosaries our homeschool group has made for Mary's September 8 Feast Day:

Last year on Sept. 8, 2009, our rosary was made with the traditional sized "Our Father" cupcakes and small "Hail Mary" cupcakes.  We put my Mary statue/vase in the center with flowers in it.  Then we placed candles in the "Our Father" cupcakes.

This year on Sept. 8, 2010, we simplified our rosary by using Hershey kisses for the "Our Father" prayers and cupcakes for the " Hail Mary " prayers.  We gathered at a local park for this year's celebration and  it was windy so we couldn't light candles as we sang "Happy Birthday".  We did say a decade of the rosary together and as each child led a "Hail Mary" prayer, they took one Hershey kiss away from the rosary.  After praying and singing everyone loved eating the extra cupcakes parents had made and the Hershey kisses.

You can check out how others make edible rosaries over at Lacy's blog at Catholic Icing.

As mentioned in the first link of this post, "the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in the Church at least since the 8th Century."  Wow! since the 8th century!?!  I didn't know this! Our family and homeschool group will continue to keep this special and fun tradition alive each year as we gather around our edible rosary and sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!"